Student Guide (New)

The academic life at the universities in UK is fast changing, exigent, challenging yet rewarding at the same time. It requires years of hard work to get into a university and significant further efforts to graduate with flying colours. The students are expected to adapt quickly to the environment and learn a number of skills that are required to meet the academic expectation of their tutors/lecturers.

In keeping with these facts, we have put together this Student Guide to help students learn, develop skills and understand key concepts required to perform well at the university level. This guide therefore provides guidance on a number of topics that students need to be aware of.

We are sure that this guide will go a long way in helping you complete your essays, dissertations, research reports and exam papers at the highest academic standard along with providing you basic information on some of the every day issues. We look forward to your comments and suggestions about this guide, please feel free to email us on info@universitywork.co.uk for this purpose.


Harvard Referencing

It is important when writing an essay or dissertation that you acknowledge the source from where you obtained a particular piece of information. This can be statistical data, a diagram, a quotation or simply an argument or idea expressed in plain text. Please note that you can not write the complete essay simply based on your personal opinion or experience. You have to substantiate this with arguments from literature and/or primary data such as interviews or a survey. Most essays are based on existing literature and you are expected to read a number of academic papers, books and organisational reports etc. to substantiate your arguments. In case of dissertations, however you may be at times expected to conduct primary research (e.g. through a survey or interviews). While using the existing literature to argue in your essay or dissertation, it is compulsory to “cite” the study (paper, book or report) in the main text of your essay along with a list of “references” at the end. This ensures that the sources of your information and properly acknowledged.

There are many ways of such acknowledgment; however the most popular method is Harvard Referencing.  Please click on the following link to access a guide compiled by University of Sheffield on Harvard Referencing. This will allow you to understand this method of referencing and  use it in your essay and/or dissertation.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/libdocs/hsl-dvc1.pdf


Plagiarism Explained

If you do not adequately acknowledge the source of your information in your essay and/or dissertation, this is termed as plagiarism. Please note that even if you give a proper citation in the text and a reference at the end of your essay/dissertation, you can be accused of plagiarism if you have copied word by word or sometimes even if you have paraphrased too closely. You must therefore write the ideas/arguments in your own words and duly provide a reference or use the inverted comas (“ “) to quote (in which case you can copy word by word, however the quotations should not be more than 15% of the total number of words of your essay/dissertation). Please click on the following link to read the Oxford University guidance on plagiarism.

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/plagiarism/

Please also note that there are many software systems that are used by the universities to detect plagiarism. These include the following:

Viper:  http://www.scanmyessay.com/viper-plagiarism-scanner.php
TurnItIn:  http://turnitin.com/static/index.html

You can use these software yourself to make sure that your work is completely original and non-plagiarised.


Searching Academic Databases

The students at the university are discouraged to use Google to search for data/literature for their essays/dissertations and the documents which are not peer-reviewed and based on people’s personal opinion. These include blogs, personal web pages and other non authentic sources. Instead, students are require to read academic journals, books and reports by reputable companies. Most academic journals these days are available in electronic format and can be searched using various academic databases such as ABI-Inform (Proquest), EBSCO, Science Direct, Emerald etc. Please refer to the following link to get a detailed list of such databases and always use these to search for literature/data for your essay/dissertation.   

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Academic_databases_and_search_engines


Writing an essay and/or Dissertation

Writing an impressive essay and/or dissertation requires a number of skills and knowledge of some basic concepts about structure, argument, coherence and writing style. Please see this detailed guide by BBC on this topic to improve upon these:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/keyskills/comms/level3/module6/1.shtml


Opening a Student Bank Account

It is particularly useful for international students to open a bank account as soon as possible to avoid risks associated with carrying cash and ease of payments. Please note that you can open a student bank account at any branch of any bank (rather than just the branch that is designated to your university which normally has long queue and sometimes even two weeks waiting time for appointments). Please refer to Tiscali’s guide for money matters and bank accounts for new students:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/bank-accounts/


Finding a Job

In UK, International Students are allowed to work 20 hours in term time and 40 hours in vacations. Please see the following links to search for jobs in your local areas:

Monster: www.monster.co.uk 

Jobcentre: www.totaljobs.com

Totaljobs: www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/


Student Visa Extension Guide

It is important for international student to apply well in advance if you wish to extend your student visa. The application can be made by post or in person to the UK home office. Please see this official guide for further details:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/studyingintheuk/quickguideforstudent/adultstudents/extendingadultstudentvisa/


Studying in UK Immigration rules and regulation   

For general rules and regulations on studying in UK, please read the following information (for International Students)

http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/studyingintheuk/


National Insurance Number (NI Number)

You need to obtain a National Insurance Number in order to work in the UK (even if you are only working part time). Please read the official HMRC information on obtaining the National Insurance Number:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nic/ynino.htm


Finding Student Accommodation

Most students relocate to another city or town to study and also experience different culture and environment. Finding appropriate accommodation can therefore be a daunting task. Please see the following websites for help in this regard.

http://www.accommodationforstudents.com/

http://www.yha.org.uk/


Travelling around UK

Travelling in UK (like most other things) can be extremely expensive, however check the following company to travel across the UK for as low as £1 (if booked well in advance)

Mega Bus:   http://www.megabus.com/uk/


Buying Train Ticket

Train tickets can also be very inexpensive if purchased well in advance. Please see the following link to search train schedules and book the journey:

http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/?
 

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